LCD Advice

moviefan

Registered
Hey guys-
I want to get my first LCD to replace my Sony 200sf CRT monitor (I know--it's about time!). The one I was looking at has a maximum res. of 1600x1200. I have an older Mac G4 Sawtooth 500mhz (with AGP card) and the max. res. I can achieve now is 1280x1084. The new LCD has both Analog and Digital interface. When I get the new LCD, will I need to get a DVI card to achieve the 1600x1200 res or will the existing AGP card do it? If I wanted to get a DVI card, could someone recommend a good, inexpensive one?

Also, speaking of LCD's, I need some advice. I am looking at the Viewsonics. Since my usage comes mainly from doing web surfing and Photoshop/Illustrator work (no gaming) I was wondering what's the most important combination of features to look for. Contrast ratio, dot pitch, viewing angle and brightness are what I need help on deciding which one is more important; based on what I'll be doing. I heard these can be really bright so do I look for a 250 brightness versus a 300? A contrast ratio of 1000:1 vs. a 600:1? Viewing angle of 178x178 vs. 160x160? And last but not least .255 dot pitch over .294? I know what these all mean and do, it's just that I need help deciding on what's best. For example, should I sacrifice dot pitch to get better contrast ratio (or vice-versa) and so on...

Thanks in advance!!!
 
Assuming that you have the right ports, your graphics card can easily power a 1600 x 1200 display. I've done it with an older 450 mhz AGP machine, and it worked great. You won't be able to power the 30-inch cinema display, but most other displays you can.
 
yeah, the maximum you can get to now is the maximum of the monitor. nearly every graphics adaptor for the last 8 years or so can exceed 1280x1024, and often go all the way up to 1920x1200.

what's the exact card, do you know?
 
The one in my Mac now? I'm looking in my System Profiler but all I see is Bus: AGP, Chipset model: ATY Rage 128 Pro, Vendor: ATI 0x1002, Device ID, Revision ID etc. Would any of this tell what kind it is? If not, all I can say is it's probably the one that came with the Mac. Sorry, I'm not video card saavy!
 
yeah should do it. in fact, it should have DVI-D already onboard.

there should be two graphics (monitor) slots on it. one should look

/::::::::\

the other should look

| ::::::::: + |

that second one is DVI, the first vga.
 
The Apple Store actually has "Power Mac G4" listed as a compatible computer with the 23-incher, which has a 1920 x 1200 resolution. It'll defiantly work.
 
what's the budget?

i've found that Dell's range of high resolution lcd's are very satisfactory, i've got the 20", which sat next to my apple 20", appears to have better colour, although the backlight bleeds a little more.

here's a good resource to pour over.

http://www.anandtech.com/displays/
 
if i remember right, the bigger the number, the better for brightness and contrast. so a 300 is better than 250, and a 1000 is better than a 600. as for viewing angle, thats the angle off from head on that you can still see the screen, so as well, the bigger the better. now for dot pitch, thats an old crt left over, but i think it now refers as well to the pixel size. unlike other stats, the smaller means its better. the smaller the pixel, the more there are on the screen, which means the higher native resolution of the monitor, and the better the picture. this is why i advise against getting 19'' lcds, because they have the same resolutions of 17'', which means the pixels are bigger to cover the extra area, so the picture will not be as crisp. as for response rate, the smaller the better. this is the time it takes the pixel to change color. so even if you aren't a gamer, i still would not get anything faster than 8ms for graphics/video work. now i have a viewsonic va712b and love it to death. its great for my gaming, and the video/graphic work i do, which is just for myself. and i like it because it has a vga port and dvi port, which can be used at the same time, and i just push a button on the front to switch. so i have my gaming pc on the dvi for the best picture and signal while playing, and my mac on the vga for everything else.
 
I just bought a Samsung 22BW 22" widescreen - it is okay, thought not stellar. There is a model up from this, about $100 more. I should have done it!
 
I have a HP lp2065 i got for 200$ shipped. Best base I have ever seen. Easy to move to portrait mode. Bright. 1600-1200 at 60htz. Just one problem.

I cant get it to run 1600-1200 on the DVI port.
 
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